#Science voyager star trek series#

Seven of NineвЂ™s femininity is a uniquely human feature of her existence. Д¬onsalvo also acknowledges that the Queen may not be intentionally thought of in these particularly gendered terms, and is designated вЂfemaleвЂ™ to reinforce the hive mind concept by correlating the Collective with bees, or to be a better-matched foil for Captain Janeway (apparently, women still canвЂ™t get along with one another, even in the distant future). If the Borg represent the greatest extraterrestrial threat to Earth, it is also interesting that their agender societyвЂ™s leader is given a distinctly feminine body and overt sexuality. Cartesian theorists have commanded attention to the ways in which Western thought has linked femininity to the body and its capricious impulses, and masculinity with the objectivity and rationalism of the mind the distinctive gendering of the Collective reinforces this binary ideology. The gendering of the Borg Queen can also be read through the framework of Cartesian Dualism the bodies of the Borg collective are rendered insignificant and neutralized by their default masculinity, whereas for their sole female member, the body is hypervisible. The first вЂfemaleвЂ™ Borg to be introduced is the Borg Queen, whose femininity is exaggerated by a figure-hugging leotard, seductive voice, and rouged lips. Masculinity is taken to be neutral and invisible, particularly as the bodies of вЂmaleвЂ™ drones are obscured by their technological implants and hefty biotechnology. Likewise, Mia Consalvo argues that the BorgвЂ™s behavior is coded with stereotypical masculine tropes, such as a penchant for science and logic and a deficit of emotion and empathy, pointing to the likelihood that the supposed вЂlack of genderвЂ™ inherently defaults to masculinity. The Borg had previously been defined as a genderless species however, they were portrayed exclusively by male actors and referred to with male pronouns. SevenвЂ™s introduction also presents an interesting basis for understanding gender in the Star Trek universe. In Voyager, SevenвЂ™s human body has been restored, but not her human nature, and her struggle to express emotion, or even personality, is a subplot throughout most of the series. For the highly-evolved Borg body, вЂњthe flesh is fully controlled by technical prosthetics.вЂќ Borg ideology recalls Cartesian dualism, in which the body and its emotional impulses are extraneous, and logic is privileged above all else, rendering the Collective impervious to the liabilities of individual whims. When an individual is assimilated into вЂњthe Collective,вЂќ their body is taken over by cybernetic implants and their memories and sense of self are erased likewise, they operate on the basis that their bodies are expendable, irrelevant, and divorced from the mind. The Borg are a cybernetic species driven by assimilating other alien races into their вЂњhive-mindвЂќ community, conquering the galaxy as they become increasingly advanced. Star Trek: Voyager also answered fanвЂ™s desires for the Borg to have more screen time, when the crew rescues a formerly human cyborg designated Seven of Nine, who joins Voyager after the removal of most of her cybernetic implants.

#Science voyager star trek series#

In this series the audience is introduced to their first female starship captain, Katherine Janeway, and a female head of engineering, BвЂ™Elaana Torres.

Although there were female crew members in the first three series (Star Trek, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), women are arguably the most powerful members of the crew in the fourth series, Star Trek: Voyager. Star Trek is a helpful cultural text use as a starting point, as according to creator Gene Roddenberry, the future that it represents is supposed to be вЂutopian.вЂ™ It is a compelling site for evaluating our anxieties about posthuman bodies and the role of gender in an idealized future. In their quests for social adaptation, Seven of Nine and ElevenвЂ™s вЂgenderingвЂ™ processes demystify the artificiality of female identity construction, though ultimately still comply with and reinforce binary gender norms. This theme is explored at length in the television series Star Trek: Voyager and NetflixвЂ™s Stranger Things, wherein non-socialized female characters integrate into their communities by learning to embody hegemonic feminine traits as they refashion their bodies. In a genre concerned with destiny, anxiety, and identity, sci-fiвЂ™s women can also be used to embody anxiety about potential boundaries of gender identity. Women are often tokenized, sexualized, or outright excluded in sci-fi texts, and they have at times faced violent harassment when striving for greater visibility in so-called вЂgeekвЂ™ culture. The relationship between science fiction and women has historically been a tenuous one.